Recipe – Dinuguan (Pork Blood Stew) by Raymund Macaalay

Do you remember the time when we have pig blood cubes in our pig organ soup? I still miss it very much. Unfortunately, there is a strict control on use of pig’s blood in Singapore.

Dinuguan or pork blood stew is a Filipino, savory stew of blood and meat simmered in a rich, spicy gravy of pig blood, garlic, chili’s, and vinegar. It is similar to the Singapore dish pig’s organ soup, differing in that it does not contain vegetables and has a characteristically thick gravy.

A lot of times people judge this dish before tasting it. The truth is for most people that do actually taste it, they actually like it. This dish is so popular in the Philippines that you will find it at just about any occasion, from simple family gatherings to weddings. Today, I have invited Raymund Macaalay from Ang Sarap to share a very interesting recipe: Dinuguan (Pork Blood Stew). Enjoy!

This will be my first time doing a guest blog and I am very well pleasured to be invited by Maureen. To give you a bit on introduction about my blog I post articles about food like Maureen the only difference is that my blog is 100% food related and all of it are home cooking.

The dishes I post are from different international cuisines adjusted to suit the Asian palate, so once in a while you will see weird ingredients that you might not heard of specially on what I will be presenting to you today.

If you are already reading my blog then my dinakdakan post did freak you out or if you don’t like any offal at all in your diet well do not read further, you have been warned as this dish will turn off a lot of people of specially the ones who are not the food adventurous type.

Now for those of you who are still reading then I must tell you now that this dish “Dinuguan” in English is called “Pork Blood Stew”, yes the sauce is made out of pork’s blood. This is your chance to be like Eric, Bill or Sookie of True Blood (www.hbo.com/true-blood/index.html) even just for a while during lunch or dinner, just buying porks blood alone made me feel like I am a vampire as it feels like buying TruBlood (http://trubeverage.com/) you will see different reactions when you pay for it over the counter. If that still is not alarming to you then you can still read further, I just want to share everything about Philippines cuisine with no holds barred, though I don’t really crave for this type of dish I still want to share it with you guys this was also the first time I cooked this in New Zealand.

Dinuguan, pork blood stew, blood pudding stew or chocolate meat is another popular Filipino dish made out of different offal’s like lungs, kidneys, intestines, ears, heart and snout cooked in a pig’s blood flavoured with vinegar or tamarind. Dinuguan came from the Tagalog word “dugo” which means blood. Though blood its a very uncommon ingredient to use, this is not just consumed in the Philippines and in fact there other countries that uses blood in their cuisine like the Polish’s Czernina which is made out of duck blood, the Swedish Svartsoppa which is made out of goose blood and the ever popular British Black Pudding. Very unusual to some but this dish is very popular in the Philippines and most of the Filipino themed restaurants serve this type of stew usually served with a rice cake called puto.

For this dish I won’t be using offal and will be using pork belly instead, I guess blood alone is too hard-core for some to take so we will be mellowing it down. Are you brave enough to try this one out?

Ingredients (Dinuguan)

700g pork belly, sliced into small cubes

150g pork liver, pureed

1 1/2 cups pigs’ blood

2 cups water

6 green finger chillies

1 whole garlic, minced

1/2 thumb sized ginger, minced

1 large onions, finely chopped

1 packet sinigang mix or 1/2 cup vinegar

salt

freshly ground pepper

Note: Using vinegar will yield a smooth textured gravy as vinegar prevents coagulating the blood. If your using tamarind blood will be coagulated and have a grainy texture so simmer them slowly. I love using tamarind as it yields a better taste than vinegar which tends to overpower.

Ingredients (Puto)

2 cups rice flour

1 tbsp baking powder

3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups coconut milk

2/3 cup water

pinch of salt

Method (Dinuguan)

1. In a pot add oil then brown pork pieces.

2. Add garlic, onion and ginger and cook until onions turn soft.

3. Add the chillies, sinigang mix and 1 cup of water, bring to a boil then simmer for 30 minutes.

Raymund is an IT Professional whose devotion is to develop applications and passion is to cook, it is his stress release after a long day analyzing and programming at work. He has been cooking since he was 7 years old, and since then almost every day he prepares the dinner and weekend meals.

Maureen

Born into a family of enthusiastic foodies, Maureen has always loved all things culinary, especially the local cuisine here in Singapore. With a life-long fascination with the rapidly evolving food scene in Singapore, she started this website in 2007 to explore and celebrate all types of local Singapore dishes and to share her love of travel and food with the world. With 4 years of experience as a journalist and producer, she has a wealth of experience in food writing, photography and styling.